1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printer ink and, more particularly, to a system for identifying the presence or absence of a particular type of printer ink.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Currently there is no way for a postage meter to determine if a fluorescent ink is being used in a postage meter. Furthermore, there is no way of identifying if either a fluorescent ink is printed or if a fluorescent ink indicium is missing due to a mechanical/electrical problem with the print head. It is important for a postage meter manufacturer to be aware of any of these outcomes to warrant that its meters operate as designed. Any solution to these problems must also be small enough to be implemented in mailing machines. There are sophisticated instruments, unrelated to printers or postage meters, which can give a fluorescent spectral response, but these instruments are very large and expensive.
Currently many printer manufacturers place microchips on their ink cartridges to prevent the printer (or meter) from printing with a counterfeit or wrong ink color cartridge. This protects their supplies revenue and prevents the printer from being damaged by incompatible ink. These chips have to be placed on each of the millions of cartridges produced, and is a significant expense. There is a desire to provide an alternative way of solving this problem. There is a desire to provide a Read After Print (RAP) sensor to protect supplies revenue and prevent damage to postage meters from unauthorized ink usage.